Trying to call nearly any dept only open 9.30am-1pm mon-fri is crazy!
This would be class. It might take off in other sectors too.
Fórsa (the main CS union) have been fighting for this for at least 4 years. This is the other CS union, AHCPS, which is the union for generalist Senior Management grades. In case people were confused. Don’t really get the sarcastic comments considering the government already funded research on 4 day week in the private sector like 2 years ago..
Well deserved I say, anyone moaning about they do fuck all etc…create a public jobs account and go for an external competition to join the Civil Service.
See if the grass really is greener.
I’ll be back later to sort by controversial
Fine Gael would never allow this, without cutting the pay or benefits in some way
Haha they don’t work anyway haha 😅🤣😂🤣😄🍆💧
Makes sense really. Probably the day off on rotation. One week you’ve a wednesday, following week you’ve monday off etc. That open up rostering issues there. I think it would be great. Most civil servants are very hardworking and the country would be far worse without them
They don’t do 3 days of work over a 5 day period. We’d be in some state if they get away with this.
I’m very much in favour of a 4 day working week, but as someone who use to work in the public sector, I also think that the civil service work fuck all as it is, and both the civil service and public sector are full of useless incompetent bastards who we can’t fire thanks to their unions.
Giving them MORE time off is a bit silly.
Not just civil servants, I’m in the private sector atm and lots of staff want it.
As someone who worked in the public service you must be having a laugh. The premise of the 4 day work week is that a well functioning company or team get the same amount or even better productivity from less hours. For a place like the public service it will just result in an even worse experience for the public. I could write a very long book about the absolute waste, laziness and incompetence that I was surrounded by.
They do fuck all anyways might as well save the electricity bill
To put the call for a four-day work week into context, the average global economic output per person was 4.4 times larger in 2019 than it [was in 1950](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/labor-productivity-per-hour-PennWorldTable?tab=chart). Even working a two or three day work week we would have significantly more output than people working a much longer week in the past.
Also, for those arguing about the difficulties of transitioning to a four-day week for society, we have successfully managed previous work-week changes – most notably the switch from a six-day to five-day working week spearheaded by Henry Ford in the 1920’s – without issue.
This seems like a huge opportunity for the Civil Service and the State.
4 day weeks as long as we can tie continued employment to a performance metric and actually fire people that are not doing their job.
They should provably role it out to a more productive and efficient sector first.
How would this work with education
The absolute losers in here bashing this are hilarious. You don’t want your life to be better? You don’t want more time at home with family and friends? Someone think of the large corporations please! We’re only about 5 times more productive individually than when these companies began operating, but think of them!
Weirdos. 4 day work week abu
How can any rational person be opposed to this?
The Netherlands introduced a 36 hr. workweek in the 90’s. It’s the standard for many economic sectors. Usually people work 4×9, or 4×8 one week and 5×8 the other. Lots of people work less hrs, and there are some workaholics that stick to a 40 hr week. I’ve worked 4 days per week for the past 30 years or so, it’s pretty sweet.
The country still hasn’t sunk into the sea.
(I’ve worked in both government and for-profit, by the way. The commercial jobs were always easier with lesser workload/overtime, and more resources/budget).
The five day week is a relic of the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of years ago when productivity was magnitudes lower and the end result required a set amount of input time in order to extract outputs. The five day week makes no sense in today’s world no matter what way you frame it.
We have more stresses than ever. Time is more finite than ever. We can get our work done faster and more efficiently, yet all the extra productivity just results in higher profits for the top earners, and not reduced working hours.
People need to be able to spend time on their hobbies, with their kids, things they enjoy in life, etc. not be stuck in this 5 day 9-5 hellhole waiting for their golden time on the weekend like a primary school child.
In a world that made sense, we would have a 2.5/3 day work week. That would allow us to actually develop as human beings. There’s no need for any feasibility or trial of periods. The benefits of a 4 day working week are proven already.
More workers rights is good for EVERYONE. Nobody should be against this minus the elite. It will improve workers rights in the private secto if this is implemented in the public sector.
I’d love to see this civil service where no one works that so many people seem to have encountered because it certainly isn’t the same one I’ve been in for the past six years.
After seeing a number of articles about this, particularly the Irish Times one, it’s as if the people writing have forgotten that the weekend is already a thing. Like a huge number of people are making arguments like “how will the country survive if everything closes on Friday? Will supermarkets be closed?” It goes to show they have absolutely no idea that a huge number of people don’t work a 9-5 and they mustnt exist in society. I think the best thing that could come of this is the civil service go to 4 days and everyone else’s bargaining power increase hugely
Once upon a time working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week was normal.
Then it was 10 hours in 5, and a half day Saturday.
Then it was 8 hours in 5 days.
Productivity has only increased in spite of this.
[deleted]
I can’t work five day work weeks. They always fire me. Must be the look I give off. It usually feels like I want to grab the closest weapon and straggle people with it. I could do 1-3 days safety. It’s mad how people accept five day work weeks. If they play it better than me I assume they are still twitchy upstairs but hide it better. There isn’t even much valuable work around for 1-4 days. Even non essential work all wants you for 5+ days. They don’t care for our safety. Just buisness profits. They remove me from jobs because eventually I’ll strangle their bullshit.
I work 4 days in the Public Sector, I have always due to long term illness. Started out part time 30hrs over 4 days which was a nightmare to even get as I was 26 and kept being looked at as lazy. I worked in am extremely busy sector and always managed to get the same amount of work done as someone working 37hrs.
Moved into the HSE and with a now 35hr work week, I work full time over 4 days. As I am the only admin in my department I can see why a 5 day week is needed but I still get the work done. The biggest issue I have found is again lack of understanding why anyone “young” needs a 4 day work week, middle upper management not being supportive in accommodating, and well crappy HSE technology failing.
A 4 day working week is a well proven concept by this point. The big question is, do we remove the Friday or the Monday?
I’m not a fan of the efficiency of our public service, but I wholly support this because we, as a society, should want this for ourselves too.
Unless of course someone comes up with a 3 day working week, then you’re in trouble huh?
Four day week and work from home standard should be the standard. But it seems no matter how many improvements are made in automation, workers never seem to have less work to do.
How would this work in other sectors? Restaurants would need to hire more people and then those costs get pushed onto everyone else. Same thing with Tescos. Need a doctor on a Friday then it now becomes out of hours. This only works for office jobs.
Why are the civil service looking to increase their work week?
32 comments
Trying to call nearly any dept only open 9.30am-1pm mon-fri is crazy!
This would be class. It might take off in other sectors too.
Fórsa (the main CS union) have been fighting for this for at least 4 years. This is the other CS union, AHCPS, which is the union for generalist Senior Management grades. In case people were confused. Don’t really get the sarcastic comments considering the government already funded research on 4 day week in the private sector like 2 years ago..
Well deserved I say, anyone moaning about they do fuck all etc…create a public jobs account and go for an external competition to join the Civil Service.
See if the grass really is greener.
I’ll be back later to sort by controversial
Fine Gael would never allow this, without cutting the pay or benefits in some way
Haha they don’t work anyway haha 😅🤣😂🤣😄🍆💧
Makes sense really. Probably the day off on rotation. One week you’ve a wednesday, following week you’ve monday off etc. That open up rostering issues there. I think it would be great. Most civil servants are very hardworking and the country would be far worse without them
They don’t do 3 days of work over a 5 day period. We’d be in some state if they get away with this.
I’m very much in favour of a 4 day working week, but as someone who use to work in the public sector, I also think that the civil service work fuck all as it is, and both the civil service and public sector are full of useless incompetent bastards who we can’t fire thanks to their unions.
Giving them MORE time off is a bit silly.
Not just civil servants, I’m in the private sector atm and lots of staff want it.
As someone who worked in the public service you must be having a laugh. The premise of the 4 day work week is that a well functioning company or team get the same amount or even better productivity from less hours. For a place like the public service it will just result in an even worse experience for the public. I could write a very long book about the absolute waste, laziness and incompetence that I was surrounded by.
They do fuck all anyways might as well save the electricity bill
To put the call for a four-day work week into context, the average global economic output per person was 4.4 times larger in 2019 than it [was in 1950](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/labor-productivity-per-hour-PennWorldTable?tab=chart). Even working a two or three day work week we would have significantly more output than people working a much longer week in the past.
Also, for those arguing about the difficulties of transitioning to a four-day week for society, we have successfully managed previous work-week changes – most notably the switch from a six-day to five-day working week spearheaded by Henry Ford in the 1920’s – without issue.
This seems like a huge opportunity for the Civil Service and the State.
4 day weeks as long as we can tie continued employment to a performance metric and actually fire people that are not doing their job.
They should provably role it out to a more productive and efficient sector first.
How would this work with education
The absolute losers in here bashing this are hilarious. You don’t want your life to be better? You don’t want more time at home with family and friends? Someone think of the large corporations please! We’re only about 5 times more productive individually than when these companies began operating, but think of them!
Weirdos. 4 day work week abu
How can any rational person be opposed to this?
The Netherlands introduced a 36 hr. workweek in the 90’s. It’s the standard for many economic sectors. Usually people work 4×9, or 4×8 one week and 5×8 the other. Lots of people work less hrs, and there are some workaholics that stick to a 40 hr week. I’ve worked 4 days per week for the past 30 years or so, it’s pretty sweet.
The country still hasn’t sunk into the sea.
(I’ve worked in both government and for-profit, by the way. The commercial jobs were always easier with lesser workload/overtime, and more resources/budget).
The five day week is a relic of the Industrial Revolution. Hundreds of years ago when productivity was magnitudes lower and the end result required a set amount of input time in order to extract outputs. The five day week makes no sense in today’s world no matter what way you frame it.
We have more stresses than ever. Time is more finite than ever. We can get our work done faster and more efficiently, yet all the extra productivity just results in higher profits for the top earners, and not reduced working hours.
People need to be able to spend time on their hobbies, with their kids, things they enjoy in life, etc. not be stuck in this 5 day 9-5 hellhole waiting for their golden time on the weekend like a primary school child.
In a world that made sense, we would have a 2.5/3 day work week. That would allow us to actually develop as human beings. There’s no need for any feasibility or trial of periods. The benefits of a 4 day working week are proven already.
More workers rights is good for EVERYONE. Nobody should be against this minus the elite. It will improve workers rights in the private secto if this is implemented in the public sector.
I’d love to see this civil service where no one works that so many people seem to have encountered because it certainly isn’t the same one I’ve been in for the past six years.
After seeing a number of articles about this, particularly the Irish Times one, it’s as if the people writing have forgotten that the weekend is already a thing. Like a huge number of people are making arguments like “how will the country survive if everything closes on Friday? Will supermarkets be closed?” It goes to show they have absolutely no idea that a huge number of people don’t work a 9-5 and they mustnt exist in society. I think the best thing that could come of this is the civil service go to 4 days and everyone else’s bargaining power increase hugely
Once upon a time working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week was normal.
Then it was 10 hours in 5, and a half day Saturday.
Then it was 8 hours in 5 days.
Productivity has only increased in spite of this.
[deleted]
I can’t work five day work weeks. They always fire me. Must be the look I give off. It usually feels like I want to grab the closest weapon and straggle people with it. I could do 1-3 days safety. It’s mad how people accept five day work weeks. If they play it better than me I assume they are still twitchy upstairs but hide it better. There isn’t even much valuable work around for 1-4 days. Even non essential work all wants you for 5+ days. They don’t care for our safety. Just buisness profits. They remove me from jobs because eventually I’ll strangle their bullshit.
I work 4 days in the Public Sector, I have always due to long term illness. Started out part time 30hrs over 4 days which was a nightmare to even get as I was 26 and kept being looked at as lazy. I worked in am extremely busy sector and always managed to get the same amount of work done as someone working 37hrs.
Moved into the HSE and with a now 35hr work week, I work full time over 4 days. As I am the only admin in my department I can see why a 5 day week is needed but I still get the work done. The biggest issue I have found is again lack of understanding why anyone “young” needs a 4 day work week, middle upper management not being supportive in accommodating, and well crappy HSE technology failing.
A 4 day working week is a well proven concept by this point. The big question is, do we remove the Friday or the Monday?
I’m not a fan of the efficiency of our public service, but I wholly support this because we, as a society, should want this for ourselves too.
Unless of course someone comes up with a 3 day working week, then you’re in trouble huh?
https://preview.redd.it/3ahi5ft4g1ya1.jpeg?width=525&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=887ddb1171aee6c8b8fa31b02bade738d493617f
Four day week and work from home standard should be the standard. But it seems no matter how many improvements are made in automation, workers never seem to have less work to do.
How would this work in other sectors? Restaurants would need to hire more people and then those costs get pushed onto everyone else. Same thing with Tescos. Need a doctor on a Friday then it now becomes out of hours. This only works for office jobs.
Why are the civil service looking to increase their work week?